Is DD entitled to NHS care as a student studying abroad?

[NotAChancee]

Hello,

DD has a congenital health condition and requires medication and blood tests at least twice a year. She is going to study veterinary medicine abroad for six years. Home for the holidays - Christmas, Easter and summer.

Will she still be entitled to NHS care? She currently get all her medications for free etc and is pretty stress free to deal with. I’m worried about how it will all work if she has to have everything managed abroad, although she will be taking out medical insurance.

Thank you

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/

All depends which country she is studying in?

Thank you for the reply. Apologies, I think I didn’t articulate myself properly. I was wondering if she can still get blood tests and request medication etc in the UK when she returns back during the holidays.

Well Iived abroad for a few years and always accessed nhs care when at home. Plus a few incidences abroad.

back then nobody would have batted an eyelid- assuming she is British though I doubt she’d have an issue.

whereas if you move to a uni within the UK it’s actually more complicated because you have to move your records to the uni address and then can’t access a gp at home, or not move and not be able to access a gp at uni.

as long as she remains registered with the GP in the UK, I can’t see an issue but obviously she needs proper insurance to be able to access care abroad too. If she needs any long term prescriptions this could be tricky though I got round this by explaining to my gp.

@StillWantingADog Thank you for your reply that is very helpful to know.

If she still has a postal address in the UK (that her driving licence, bank account etc. will remain registered to), I wouldn't see that there would be a problem. Presumably she can use your address?

Re. her healthcare abroad, depending where she is going there might be a reciprocol healthcare agreement in place. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-reciprocal-healthcare-agreements-with-non-eu-countries For instance, I lived in Australia for five years and could use their health service for free, as our governments have an agreement.

I wouldn't open up the debate with the GP - if she seems them when she is home in the UK, and doesn't update her address from what it is now then how would they even know.

While I agree if she doesn’t have any issues my gp was very sympathetic when I explained why I needed repeat prescriptions on a 6 rather than 3 month basis.
that was some years ago though.

My GP was also sympathetic. At one appointment she gave me a huge amount of repeat meds to take back to my new country with me. She said, “while you’re abroad you’re not costing the NHS anything, so you may as well take these meds with you!” She was brill.